Through the Storm
by Mandolina Lightrobber
Summary: Small adventures, strange meetings and chances that need to be taken. /Reno, Shelke/
1. Through the storm

**A/N:** Written for _16 candles_ LiveJournal community challenge, using the prompt _#13 – Candlelit Loss_. Not much of losing in this one, albeit it sounds like it could turn into multiple chapter fic. A rare occasion for me, lately.

**Warnings:** Mostly worksafe, nothing too explicit.

**Disclaimer:** Square Enix owns all.

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**Through the Storm**

It was one of those evenings when a heavy storm raged in Midgar. The electricity had disappeared several hours ago and the city of Edge was drowned in darkness save for a few isles of weak candlelight.

_Seventh Heaven_ was crowded. Many people had sought refuge in the bar, not wanting to face the raging forces of nature, and Tifa was busy mixing drinks while Yuffie danced throughout the room delivering them to the waiting customers. Even though the ninja did her best to lighten her friend's mood, a stiff smile was all she received for her efforts, but it did not put her down and did not stop from trying.

Even if things had seemed to be going good for a while and no one had threatened the Planet's existence for a good few years, lately that had started to change.

Cloud was still outside in the storm, possibly running a late delivery, but he was not the one Tifa was so concerned about. She knew that Cloud could handle a good storm and then some. This time, it was Vincent who made her worry.

After the Deepground, it had looked like everything would work out and he would finally become more open and more involved with his friends, as opposed to coming to aid only when the things got too rough. And yet, as the time went by, the ex-Turk started disappearing again.

And lately, so did Shelke.

Tifa's eyes turned towards the door in hopes that it would open any minute now to reveal a soaked-throughout Shelke on the doorstep. But that moment never came. The only time door opened was when a group of men decided to brave the storm and head home before their wives raised hell. Yuffie's tries to distract her were slowly becoming irritating, but she bit her tongue and said nothing, aware that her friend meant it well and was only trying to help.

* * *

Reno was walking down the street, cursing the weather and unresponsive people who still refused to acknowledge the growing influence of ShinRa Company. Sure, there had been hard times when people lost all trust in it and the number of employees fell under the count of five, when they were shunned and hated, but all the efforts put into cleaning its reputation was finally showing. More and more of the new and smaller companies were forced to realise that ShinRa Electric Company was not out of the market yet and was not going to back down any time soon.

But climbing back to the top was agonisingly slow. It was taking time; more than they had expected.

Reno cursed again, getting his mouth full of rainwater. He pulled his collar up higher and quickened his pace. Streets were empty and pitch-black, a seldom car speeding by and kicking up waves of dirty water from the puddles on the streets. He had already experienced one such cold wave and now preferred to stay on the far side of the sidewalks as close to the buildings as possible. It was practically the only way to find the way in the darkness, the weak candlelight coming from some windows being more of a distraction than help.

Therefore a flash of bright orange light drew his attention immediately. Following it, Reno found himself in a narrow alley slightly sheltered from the driving rain and the cold wind that was picking up the volume. The light was still flashing and narrowing his eyes, the Turk could see two figures caught up in a fight. For a moment he considered turning around and going back from whence he had come, having no intention of getting caught up in the local gang wars in such a lousy weather (not that he would fancy doing it in fine weather to begin with), but he recognised the wielder of the light-emitting weapons. Reno had seen the girl several times in the past few years when he was paying a visit to _Seventh Heaven_.

Just then the girl got overpowered and thrown to the ground, her weapons getting knocked out of her hands and clattering onto the asphalt ground. All sounds, including her silent cry of surprise and pain, were drowned in the rain. Now Reno simply could not walk away. Either Tifa or Cloud would kick his ass if the word got out that he had been near and had not helped. Reno had had enough troubles with them already to add one more.

Carefully, he moved forth in the darkness even though there was no need for stealth – rain and wind masked all sounds. The girl's strange weapon was still glowing in the dark, guiding him, and the redhead could see how the man leaned over the girl. Five steps, four, three, and he was already at the assailant's side and swiftly brought his EMR down on the back of the other's neck. Electricity crackled, sparks flew and the man collapsed.

Reno checked the girl for life signs before reaching for her weapon. Careful to not touch any of the glowing parts, he fiddled around with it until he figured how to turn it off. He replaced it in the holders strapped on the girl and picked her up, considering where to head now. Deciding that getting out of the rain was the current top priority, he kept walking down the alley and turned left around the first corner in his path. He knew the owner of a rather small and ratty inn in the area and as much as he hated staying in low-class places, this was not the time to be picky.

Once under a roof and settled in a small narrow room, Reno drew the curtain and sat down on an old and creaking chair. He supposed it would be smart to discard the wet clothes, but there was nothing he could change into, and the same thing applied for the girl whom he had put down on the bed and cowered with a blanket.

Wind howled and rattled the window; pipes gurgled and creaked, emitting faint warmth, and the three candles in the candleholder kept on flickering. Wax was slowly dripping down and onto the table by which Reno sat. One elbow propped up on the table, chin resting in his palm, he watched the girl sleep and shivered when a harsher breeze forced a wave of cold air inside the room. His wet clothes clung to his body and drained all of his warmth away. He had no wish to catch a cold, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Just as he was about to get up and do something about the situation, the girl opened her eyes. When her gaze turned to him, all he could come up with was, "Yo."

She did not respond.

"What's your name?" was the next thing that came to his mind and immediately sprung onto his tongue.

She gave him a long emotionless glance, though a spark of recognition passed through it. She had seen him before in _Seventh Heaven_. "Shelke."

"Reno."

"I know," she almost said, but withheld it. Indeed. She had heard his name mentioned on more than one occasion, along with Rufus ShinRa's name. No one in _Seventh Heaven_ had been all too happy about his visits and considered it best to not get involved with their kind. But sometimes it was just too inevitable; like right now.

Reno wondered about the lack of emotions on her face and the lack of questions, considering the rather strange situation. In the dimly lit room he could not see how her hand was gripping the handle of her sabre, ready to put it to use any moment. He stretched his legs and leaned back in the chair, running one hand through his slowly drying hair.

"Looks like we're stranded for the night, yo."

Harsh patter of rain against the windowpanes confirmed his words.

Shelke relaxed, if only a little. "Isn't it getting uncomfortable in those wet clothes?"

Reno shrugged. "Got nothing to change into."

After that silence befell the room for a good while. Eventually, Reno's head started nodding despite his best attempts to stay awake and the coldness creeping up his back. He could feel cough building up in his lungs and cursed mentally. His boss would not be pleased if he landed sick at this point; there were too many things he needed to do and secure, and illness would slow down not only him, but the rebuilding of ShinRa company as well.

"You are tired," Shelke stated matter-of-factly.

"Smartass, yo," Reno mumbled under his nose, being jerked out of his drowsy state by the sudden sound of her voice.

"There is enough place on the bed, if you need sleep," she pointed out as if it were the most obvious thing in the world (which it were, in a way).

Reno stared at her in wonder, but was too tired and too cold to dwell on it. Judging by her appearance, he considered Shelke a child, and thus thought of her words as of those of an innocent child. For a moment he seemed to have forgotten the fact that she was armed and had fought with a full-grown man earlier. He was cold, tired, and possibly already sick and could not care about anything else than warm bed.

Reno stood up and discarded his jacket and hung in on the pipes, hoping that it would dry sooner that way. He did, however, decide to keep his pants and shirt on, not feeling too comfortable in the presence of a child, as he saw it.

Shelke shuffled to one side of the bed shortly before Reno blew out the candles and moved to lie down with his back turned towards her. The redhead considered it to be his luck that there were two blankets and they did not have to share. He shivered a little until the bed and the blanket warmed up, and soon fell into deep slumber.

Shelke raised her head and studied the dark silhouette next to her for a while. No one could say what she was thinking at that moment. Soon she turned her back on him as well and adjusting the pillow on the way, pulled the blankets closer around herself to savour as much warmth as possible.

A good few hours might have passed before the storm outside started to die down a little. The patter of the rain grew softer, the wind quieted, and a faint light seemed to seep through the drawn curtain when Shelke finally drifted off to sleep. One her hand was still holding on to her weapon.

What the morning would bring them, no one could tell.


	2. Stepping Stones

**A/N:** Written for _16 candles_ LiveJournal community challenge, using the prompt _#11 – Rainy Day Inferno_. This one is slighly lacking on the inferno bit, but I still have only a vague idea where this is heading. Multi-chapter fics are not really my kind of thing, so I apologise if the plot development seems too slow.

**Warnings:** Mostly worksafe, nothing too explicit. Self-beta, might contain odd mistakes.

**Disclaimer:** Square Enix still owns all.

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**Stepping Stones**

Shelke had woken up early. Used to the darkness of the underground, she found it a little difficult to adapt to the life above the ground. With the first rays of the sun, even if the sky was heavily overcast, she was up. Back at the Seventh Heaven she always stayed in her bed, unmoving, and waited for someone else – usually Tifa – to get up first. Shelke did not wish to roam the still-sleeping house like a restless ghost; not after the first time she had done that. Tifa had woken up, found her awake and had been worried. Then and there, Shelke had found out that she did not like making people worry.

This situation, however, was different. This man was a foreigner, the building they were in was foreign, and all such unknown things could easily prove dangerous. From her position on the chair, Shelke had studied Reno carefully while he slept. He did not look dangerous, not the way his hair was messed up, not with that relaxed expression on his face. Only a few times she had seen a muscle twitch in his cheeks and taking a look at Reno's eyes, Shelke had found that they were moving very fast behind the closed lids. He was dreaming about something not very pleasant, she deduced.

Shelke had checked the pockets of his jacket in case he had mako with him. She needed her next dose, otherwise she could not fight, and there was no doubt that she would end up in a fight before she could return to Seventh Heaven. Things like that happened with girls who looked as small and young as her. It was one of the things she had to learn quickly in this over-ground world. The short hours of sleep had allowed her to recover enough to function properly, but it was definitely not enough to defend herself on the streets.

Shelke had also studied Reno's weapon which he had forgotten on the table. She had not touched it, careful to not turn it on and wake the sleeping man. Technically, she knew how it worked. She had seen different weapon prototypes during her research hours, analysing some of them to provide her former teammates with information on their enemies. Two minutes spent in a synaptic net dive, and she would know more about Reno's weapon than he could ever fathom.

Of course, it had been back in those days. Now Shelke had changed sides and lived together with the people she had once fought against. But this man, _Reno_, she immediately elaborated, was different. She did not know which side he was on, yet.

When Reno woke up, it was already midday. The rainstorm still raged on, but in a lesser volume. The air in the small room was damp and dreary and the Turk did not want to get out of the bed even though he knew he had to. He turned on his back and remembered – a second too late – that he was not alone in the bed. One look to his side and he found the spot empty. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of blue and turned his head to find the girl sitting on the chair he had occupied last night.

In the dimly lit room her eyes were glowing with a pale blue light. Reno searched his mind for the name of such a phenomenon, but could not remember it. Not yet, anyway.

"Yo."

Shelke inclined her head slightly, an emotion that could be called amusement appearing on her face. "You sure say that a lot."

Immediate situation analysis: old habits died hard.

Reno did not reply. They were two individuals who did not know the value of or the need for a proper morning greeting. Sure, people around them used those words all the time, and when addressed with them, they automatically would reply with the same, but in other situations they were freely omitted without a second thought.

Reno ran a hand though his messed hair, which only served to mess them up more. "When d'you get up?"

"At sunrise," Shelke replied without thinking.

Reno glanced over at the window. The curtain was still drawn shut, but had it been open, Reno was more than certain that he would see an overcast sky. Sun rarely shone on Midgar. It was always grey clouds and an even greyer rain. He chose to not comment on Shelke's words.

"You wouldn't happen to know what time is now?" Reno did not have his watch with him. Lately, he had started forgetting it at home. That way, he could take a few liberties off his tight schedule. Of course, work did not disappear, but he could pretend, at least for a moment, that he was in no rush.

Shelke shrugged and looked over at the window as well. "Midday, I think."

Reno chose not to question that, since his guesses would not bring any certainty either. Instead, he chose to show off some of the renowned Turk bravery by shoving the blanket aside and jumping out of the bed. The cold, damp air made him shudder and he moved to pick up his jacket. Shelke moved her legs aside, giving him enough room to pass by and only then Reno realised how small this room actually was. With Shelke sitting there, there was barely enough place to move between the bed, the table, and the chair. It was, he decided, an uncomfortably narrow room.

Disappointment reflected on Reno's face when he lifted up his jacket. It was still damp and he shuddered just to think that he would have to put it on and go back into the rain. Nevertheless, he pulled it on, struggling a little with the sleeves of his shirt that was got caught up. He must have looked quite silly, struggling and flailing to get the jacket fit properly and the shirt twisted on his body, because Shelke chuckled.

Reno huffed and struggled on, annoyed to get laughed at by a child.

"Do you need help with that?" Shelke asked in all seriousness.

"No, I'll... uh." He shook his left arm angrily, trying to force the damp sleeve of his jacket to turn. "I'll manage," he ground out and almost tripped over his own feet, getting overbalanced in the narrow space. When he straightened up again, he found two small hands pulling his shirt down. Shocked, he stilled all his movements.

"Here, I'll help," Shelke offered when she was already helping. One determinate pull, and the white shirt straightened somewhat. Reno found that his jacket already fit him better. Confused, he tried to adjust it and found that it was not sticking to him so tightly.

Once certain that Reno would be able to handle it himself, Shelke stepped back and resumed watching. Absentmindedly, she was analysing him and his movements. Her memory had already stored all the visible balance points which he had no great control over. It could come in handy later, if Reno suddenly decided to attack her.

While Shelke concentrated on self-defence, Reno concentrated on the awkward feeling she was giving him. For the first time, he had almost seen her as an adult. It had to be her behaviour, the Turk decided. He was used to kids behaving childishly, like they should, and was not prepared to be met with the seriousness of a grown-up. He shrugged it off though, deciding that it was just his feverish mind – for he had finally remembered that he might have caught a fever – playing tricks on him. And so, he opted to move on to a new subject.

"You hungry?"

Shelke tilted her head to the side curiously. Was she? She did not know much of the things these over-ground people were used to. She did not think she had ever felt hunger. Back in the days of Deepground, mako had mulled and erased all senses and feelings, and for as long as she had her daily dose, she was content and needed no more. In the Seventh Heaven, Tifa always made sure she would eat her meals, and even if was not satisfactory enough, the food did lessen her crave for mako.

_Mako withdrawal_, Vincent had called it on the day when Shelke thought she would die if she did not get another dose. Shelke had wondered how Vincent knew what it was, but did not dare to ask. She feared that such subject would open a tightly shut door and who knows what could happen then. Later, she had remembered who, or _what_, Vincent was. She also remembered that Cloud had been a part of the SOLDIER program. She had researched both of them in the past, and knowing what they had gone though, it should not have been a surprise for them to know such a thing.

They had given her some make; it had been little, too little to make the craving go away, but sufficient enough to last her for a while. Mako was hard to get by, Cloud had informed her seriously. Shelke appreciated that. Cloud never treated her like a child, and neither did Vincent. Others often tended to overlook her real age and paid more attention to her physical appearance.

Now she wondered what the hunger could feel like. The way she felt during mako withdrawals? She doubted it. Though there was a strange emptiness in her stomach. Deciding that that must be it, Shelke nodded. "Yes."

Reno grabbed his EMR from the table and strapped it back into place. Shelke got up and stepped aside, letting him pass by. He was, after all, the one with the key to the door. As he walked to unlock it, he pondered all the closest places where they could get food. Most of them were not suited for bringing a child into, and it had to be a relatively cheap place or one where he knew the owner so that the expenses could be added to the ShinRa's bill. This left him with only one choice.

"Do you have mako?" Shelke suddenly asked.

When Reno turned around to regard her, she seemed surprised at her own daring. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. What was this girl thinking? "Why d'ya ask?"

"I..." Shelke stumbled over her words, thinking that maybe she had dared too much, but finished the sentence nevertheless, "...need it."

"What for?" Reno demanded, but she did not reply. She even avoided his gaze, now being certain that she had spoken out of place.

Seeing that she was not going to answer, Reno did not pry. Kids were strange these days. Still, he decided to keep an eye on her, just in case.

They walked down the streets quickly, trying to shield themselves from the still pouring rain as best as they could. Not a word was spoken and the silence around them grew more and more awkward.

When Reno opened the door to the low-class café, he breathed a sigh of relief. The place was not overcrowded and yet had enough people to make the two newcomers not stand out. They blended into the crowd of the locals perfectly and to a casual observer they would appear no more than a father and daughter having a lunch together. Their somewhat similar colour of hair and eyes made it easy to disguise as such.

They ate in silence, enjoying the warmth of the small café. It was somewhat cosy, despite the bland furniture and the barely-discernible sound of distorted music coming from the beaten speakers behind the counter. The lively chatter drowned out most of the sounds, and they were not threatened by the same tense silence from earlier.

All too soon, the meal was over and the time to walk back onto the street came. "Come, I'll take ya home," Reno offered, standing up.

Shelke understood it the way it was meant – as an order, but did not protest. The absence of mako in her body was making her more agreeable, especially if it meant that she would not have to deal with the street hooligans on her way home.


End file.
